I'M BACK!

....WOW is all I can say about these last couple of weeks. I kinda fell off the wagon, got back on, fell off again, and then the last couple of days I have been half on, half off...:)

Today, I am leaving for KY with one of my most precious friends, Laura. Laura and I (and I know this is going beyond the "diet blog") met when we were both selling Premier. We hit it off immediately and, at the time, were both SAHMs with little kids so time allowed us to grow closer and eventually be very much like sisters. Well, needless to say, when you are both working full time and now have kids in school, an hour and half distance (she lives in Pelham) and busy schedules makes for a year (almost) going by without laying eyes on one another except on Facebook. So, today, she and I will drive 5 hours to KY to see our faves on the SYTYCD tour and then drive 5 hours back tomorrow....we are thinking we may not shut up! :)

Anyway, since I will be travelling, today and tomorrow will be my two gorge days for this round of the HCG diet. I am totally ready to tackle this round with full force. And this time, I have a partner in crime! My sweet hubby!!! With him eating the same foods I am, I am praying that this round will go quickly and that we can be support for one another! I will post only about me, unless of course he wants me to share HIS weightloss :)

Please, if you are supporting me by following my blog and keeping me accountable, continue to do so, adding lots of prayer. It's getting down to crunch time before Disney and there is no room for cheating or failing this time! Gotta get all the way back up on the wagon and stay there for the next couple of months! Thanks in advance for prayers and encouragment! It means so much!

God bless you and thanks for reading!!! I gotta go GORGE! ;)

K

I have LOST my focus....

How can a person be doing so well and losing weight and then totally lose focus that quickly? I know it's Satan all up in my biz, but I gotta get back into control! PLEASE pray for me. I am not doing badly, I just have not really stayed completely on plan. Anyway, hoping that there will be some loss after today's cheat.

BTW, my gain was 4 lbs, which is not as bad as I thought it would be.....I did not weigh until this morning...Our mornings have been NUTS! Homecoming week and trying to dress up everyday has thrown our morning routine off like crazy!

Anyway, please say a prayer for me. I am struggling this week!

Seriously???????

This is what I was asking myself after I went to the CFA drive thru today and ordered not a salad, but a Chicken sandwich and FRIES! I am not sure what is going on with me! Ok, let me back up and give the rest of the ridiculous story. I started my injections back today and packed a pre-measured baggie of beef (I pat it out and cook it in my microwave at work....saves time at home), cherry tomatoes and an apple for lunch. When I opened my lunch tote at lunch time, a HORRIBLE, NAUSEATING smell erupted and I realized that my beef had been in the fridge a little too long. So, needless to say, I couldn't eat that. Well, Plan B should have been either eat the apple and the tomatoes and forget the meat OR go thru a drive thru and order just a grilled ck patty and eat it with my tomatoes and apple. BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOO....I used that as an excuse to "wait til tomorrow". That phrase is part of the reason I am where I am. UGH!!!! Anyway, tomorrow IS going to be better because I am cooking food tonight for the rest of the week. I did not get on the scales this a.m. due to lack of time and I just plain forgot but I will tomorrow and I will report the sad news. BUT, back on track, I hope to re-lose what I have gained and keep it up for the next 7 days. Thanks, J.H., for your (in your best disappointed voice) "KAREN....." this afternoon. It shamed me and that is a GOOD THING! :) Hoping to get back on track tomorrow with food that does NOT smell like something DEAD! :)

Thanks for reading!

....I am human!

I finally got my monthly visitor on Thursday night. Friday I did very well with eating the protein/no sugar, no starch. Saturday, I BLEW it!! Today I am kinda back on track but tomorrow starts the 500 calories again. I hate messing up because tomorrow morning there is no telling how much weight I have gained. I gain FAST! Anyway, I am hoping to be back in my right mind after TOM is GONE for a while! I have one more week of 500 calories and then off a couple of days. I am going to re-start on the 23rd and then go thru a full 23 day round!

still waiting........

Well, I was thinking that TOM was RIGHT around the corner...apparently not! However, I was getting so hungry the past couple of days, even with the injections, that I decided to go ahead and come off injections, maintain and then as soon as TOM comes and goes, I will go right back on injections and 500 calories. So far, so good on the maintenance...we shall see. Today I had a grilled ck salad with ranch, but I am hoping that doesn't make me gain.

More later...I am EXHAUSTED!

I almost forgot!!!

I did not meet my 15 lb goal today, but I am down 14.6, so hopefully I will be be down 15 lbs or more by morning! That would be great! :)

Ok, I'm done for today! :)

Maintenance and Stabilization

The maintenance portion of this diet is designed to maintain the weight on your LAST injection day. During maintenance, you can eat anything except starch and sugar. It's basically the "protein" diet except that you can have carbs, just not starch. Maintenance is to last for 3-6 weeks after your last injection. During maintenance, you are not supposed to gain or lose over 2lbs from the LIW (last inj weight). If you go over the 2 lbs (even by .2) you are to do what Dr. S called a "steak day". On this day, you drink lots of water, skipping breakfast and lunch and then at dinner time you eat a HUGE steak and either and apple or tomato ( I would have to break this up into lunch and dinner or I would have to be scraped off the floor). This is supposed to reset your weight to the previous day and then you can start back with the maintenance plan. After 3 weeks you can begin adding starch and sugar but still abiding by the 2lb rule and doing a steak day anytime you are over that 2 lbs. So far, I have not done the maintenance the way it should be done, HENCE the weight gain! By doing this maintenance your body is supposed to basically get "stuck" at this weight so that in reality you should be able to eat whatever you want, which is why this is called the CURE to obesity! I have always just done the 3 weeks of maintenance and then started right back with gorge days and vlcd since I am not "done" yet. This time I am committing to do the steak days when necessary!

Ok, so back to while I am on my TOM. Instead of starving AND having immense pain, I am just going to add ounces to the veg. and meat for a couple of days and then after it's over, I will go right back on the vlcd and injections. Hopefully this will allow me to maintain over those days and not be miserable! I feel like since this diet was invented in the 50's I can test variations. haha! I am also only going to be on maintenance for about a week before I go right back on injections. I am going to KY for SYTYCD and I have planned it out so that I am gorging while I am there AND I am trying to fit in 3 rounds before Disney! And let me go ahead and tell you that I WILL eat at Disney, but plan to inject those 4 days so that I can consider those days "gorge" days. You can gorge up to a week. So, while I may gain a little more than I would on the normal 2 gorge days, I will still be indulging myself within the legal limits of the diet! :)

So, I hope that this makes sense. It really does help so much to be able to put it out there.....it helps me with my planning! :)

Thanks for reading!!!

that time again.....

.....that FANTASTIC time that we ladies look forward to each month...it's right on the horizon and I am feeling it!!! Here's the way the diet is supposed to work during this time. You are supposed to skip injections but stay on the 500 cal. I am not real sure why that is....do we naturally produce hcg during TOM? Whatever the reason, you aren't supposed to inject. Anyway, I have never had to deal with this because I usually plan my diet around this time. Well, I know for a fact that I will STARVE on 500 cals without the HCG and it only takes like 24 hours to actually get out of your system. So....I think what I am going to do is actually go into the maintenance portion of the diet during my TOM and then pick back up with injections/500 cals after it's over. Luckily mine only lasts 3 days so I won't be off the diet for long. And I am willing to sacrifice the weightloss for 3 days in order to avoid starving!

I don't have time right now, but I will talk about the maintenance portion later on!

Uh Oh....

Well, my "cheat" caught up with me. If it's not on the food list, there is a reason. Yesterday when I got up and weighed I had lost another 1.3 lbs to make the grand total 12.6...yay me! BUT remember the other day when I ate the most delicious, yet most illegal peanut butter? Yeah, I guess it finally caught up with me because this morning I got up and had just maintained. I know that is better than a gain, but still.......

Today I am cooking chicken and green beans for a couple of meals. I LOVE chicken but I don't like to thaw and cook it. So, I have to get ahead of the game on that. Yesterday I had 2 meals with beef (which could be another reason for a stall today). For lunch I made about 10 mini meat balls...they were so cute and so YUM! With that I ate some mustard and a pickle. Then last night I cooked beef and onions with lots of garlic and chili powder. They were DELISH! I love onions!!! :) I ate my 2 apples for lunch and dinner. Overall it was a very good day. The only thing is the water. I drank 96 oz, which is alot, but not as much as I feel I need on this diet. So today, I must do better!!!

So this is a short post but just wanted to update my loss and stall :( for the weekend. I am still hoping to reach 15 lbs by tomorrow morning...I better go drink some water! :)

Thanks for reading!!!

God is good!

So, before I begin, I wanted to show you what the "old" me looked like. I hope to refresh my own memory by posting pics every now and then of what I used to look like! This was about 3 1/2 years ago at my aunt's wedding. Right?? Packed on the poundage huh?! It disgusts me to think that in the face of stress and worry while Jason was jobless and life was just not great, that I decided to turn to food instead of GOD and let it control my life in such a way that I gave up feeling good and feeling good about myself. Anyway, just a glimpse into my past soon to be future! Ok, now I'll blog.....

In the face of much temptation this week, God has really given me some mighty strength! Yesterday with the cookies and then today with cupcakes and ice cream (a bday party in my classroom)...and this afternoon I took the kids to CFA for ice cream and just the smell of that place makes my mouth water! I could eat it morning, noon and night! That and pizza....yum. Ok, back to that mighty strength....HAHA!

Last night, I did a no no, but for a no no I thought it was a wise choice. I buy "natural" peanut butter for myself because I can eat that during the maintenance portion of the diet. So, remember how I said that eating at 4:45 was a good thing and that I would eat nothing else all night? HA! I got hungry around 7:30 and since I had already had all my foods for the day, I was stumped. I drank tons of water but also had 1/2 an apple and a tsp of natural peanut butter. PB is not even on the diet! OOPS....BUT it beats having a doughnut or a nutty buddy bar (another fave...) However, when I got on the scales this a.m. I had lost another 2.2 lbs. for a grand total of 11.3!!!!!! I met my goal! And that was only DAY 3!!!! I am so excited!

Today, I had beef and tomatoes again for lunch and I'm gonna eat chicken and green beans for dinner. I was going to try my canned asparagus, but since I was already cooking green beans for the kids, I thought I would just wait on the asparagus. I had strawberries for my lunch time fruit and I am thinking a delish McIntosh apple for dessert tonight....minus the peanut butter!!!! :)

Hoping that this weekend I will be up to at least 15 lbs lost which should be a pretty reachable goal! Hope everyone has a great Friday night! Mine will be spent going thru my kids Winter clothing to see what is going to need to be purchased....fun times!

Thanks for reading!!! :)